The year 2020 is behind us now. And it’s time to look forward to what 2021 will bring for us. But, one thing for certain is that the uncertainty about everything still lingers.
During consumers’ shopping experience, most marketers face problems with how to fulfil the needs of customers to obtain material, knowledge, and customised solutions in real-time.
However, digital technologies of today, such as video conferencing, location-based mobile applications, and virtual reality, offer a highly personalised and immersive experience that enables brand and user to interact and share valuable information.
Why Augmented Reality?
With rapidly evolving customer habits, it is critical to prioritise interactions that seamlessly bridge online and offline worlds, beginning with interactive commerce, which supports a number of main priorities for 2021.
With an 87 per cent rise in e-commerce penetration, within a few short months, online shopping has seen a decade of growth, and customers are unlikely to go back.
Immersive commerce should be a priority, especially when delivered through a web-based platform that maximises mobility and potential distribution touchpoints, using augmented reality and 3D to bridge online and offline environments.
According to Hoffman and Noval augmented reality is called interactivity between humans and machines, where the participants interact with the mediated world. It, then, according to their behaviour, reacts.
Interactivity is, thus, a behavioural aspect in which users are able to control and influence the environment in front of them.
Now, the question is how can you as a marketer can benefit from this technology? If you need to look for an example, look no further than the small device in your pocket or bag. Our smartphones nowadays have made our life a bit easier than before.
There are quite a few companies that have used AR in their business to provide a better experience for their consumers. For instance, IKEA mobile app that is known in the tech world as one of the first companies to use augmented reality well. Another example that is quite similar to the Swedish home furniture and furnishings store is L’Oréal. The app allows customers to try out various types of makeup before making purchases.
How Does AR Improve Customer Experience
The application of AR in your marketing campaign will help strengthen how it communicates, whether online or offline, with consumers. The technology provides the ability for a customer’s worldview to cover information, pictures, or other content.
The three examples below illustrate how customer service can be improved by AR. They include apps that you can provide consumers with, as well as forms in which AR can support your employees. They are far from the only ways you can use AR, but they reflect techniques being implemented by different businesses.
- Training Customer Service Agents
Training can be made easier and more reliable by AR. Take, for instance, a company which sells a wide range of products. Its customer service workers must be able to describe and object to potential customers expertly. It’s not good enough to have just a passing experience with product ranges.
- Removing Uncertainty From Purchase Decisions
In order to give customers a better-rounded experience of a product, immersive apps may use AR. The IKEA Place app, for instance, allows users to ‘place’ furniture with only their phone or tablet in their home. At both ends of the buyer’s journey, this AR helps enhance the consumer experience.
- Offering Advice or Adding Value Via Interactive Packaging
Interactive packaging provides a more engaging and useful experience for customers through AR. Consumers will point their phone at the packaging of a product and see convincing graphics.
In 2021, brands that have undergone the onslaught of challenges in 2020 are going to uncharted territories, a path that marketers must take with agility and a willingness to refresh their companies with digital experiences at the heart. Immersive trading is essential to the preparation of businesses to meet whatever possibilities and obstacles await.
